Heal
by westlight
Summary: A patient comes in exhibiting the same symptoms that House did during his infarction. Chapter 2 out, please Read & Review!
1. Chapter 1

Another House fic! :D Hope you enjoy it, and please review at the end (:

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'Katelyn Shepherd, 15-year-old, with intense pain in her leg, just came in.'

'Probably pulled a muscle. Boring. Anyway, Shepherd? What kind of surname is _that_?'

'Too intense to be a pulled muscle. Plus, she has blood in her urine. What kind of a name is House anyway?'

'Ooh, pissy. Anyway! Why are you asking me to take this case? So I can waste my time on a 15-year-old with pain in her leg and blood in her pee?'

'No, I'm asking you to take it because she's a fifteen-year-old version of you.'

'Really? She looks that good? Well, I definitely gotta go see her.' House took the file from Cameron and went back to watching his soap.

'Why – '

'Wait.'

'But –'

'Wait.'

Cameron stood next to him, arms folded. 'Are you going to see her?'

'I might. To see if she's faking it.'

'Faking blood in the - '

'I said, wait! He's going to propose to her anytime now!'

Giving up, Cameron went next door to join Chase and Foreman.

House turned off his TV and shouted into the next room, 'What's the differential diagnosis for blood in pee?'

'Kidney stone,' Chase suggested.

Foreman scoffed as he read the patient's file. 'We're completely ignoring her leg pain?'

'How often do you find such bad leg pain in a fifteen-year-old girl who isn't involved in sports or any strenuous activity, like, I don't know, sex?'

'How often do you find an aneurysm in people's thighs in the first place?'

'Not often! All the more reason she wouldn't have one. And to answer your question, I'm not sure, 'cos I'm the only person I know who had one.' House lifted his cane and smiled his monkey smile at his team. Foreman rolled his eyes and said, 'I'm going to MRI her leg.'

'Which leg is it?' House asked.

'Left.' Foreman, Cameron and Chase got up and out of the room.

'You think it's a blood clot and you want to use an MRI to see it?' House called to them.

'No, it's any dead muscle I want to see under the MRI.'

'Test her blood,' House replied. He paused, and continued, 'for elevated potassium and proteins. And get a CT scan.'

-

'Her blood's positive for elevated potassium _and _proteins,' Chase declared proudly.

'How 'bout the CT scan? It's going to be more reliable. And what's with the tone? Not like you diagnosed it,' House said. 'Cameron already did when she made me take on the case.'

'Then…why'd you take it?' Chase asked.

House evaded the question. 'CT scan results!' he hollered.

Foreman passed the scan to House. 'Wow. Big blooming aneurysm! And - '

'It's formed a clot in – '

'Her thigh muscles. Only I get to say the interesting results,' he replied to Foreman's disgusted look. 'Have you removed the clot?'

'No.'

There was silence in the room for a few seconds. House broke it, saying, 'I know sitting and staring is a lot easier than removing clots. But doctor stuff is always more fun.' Showing off his arrogant face, House sat down and watched them leave the room. 'Cameron!' he shouted as she was just about to walk out.

All three of them turned.

'What, all of you are now named Cameron?'

Chase and Foreman sighed and brisk-walked off.

'How long has she been having this pain?' House asked her.

'Why don't you read the file?' Cameron answered.

'Because I don't like reading. How long has she been having this pain?'

'This is her second day,' Foreman said.

'She's been having bad pain and she only comes in the second day? Man, she is _such_ a brilliant person. So much for being the fifteen-year-old version of me!' He shot her a dirty look. 'Now, go do your fun doctor stuff. Remove that clot.' House walked back to his table and started playing with his yo-yo. But the pain shot through his leg, forcing him to sit down, take the familiar orange bottle, and dump another white tablet into his system.

'House!' Wilson pushed open the glass door and entered the room.

'Oh, God. Save me from the evil trenches of doom,' House muttered.

'Heard about your latest case. Sounds interesting.'

'What's so interesting about those two symptoms?'

'No, what's so interesting is that you chose such a boring case with such uninteresting symptoms. What're you going to do to her?'

'Nothing! I'm just going to do her.'

'For hell's sake.'

'Fine, I don't know. Take her out to dinner once she's well? We'll make an _interesting _couple. We could have matching canes!'

Wilson rolled his eyes. 'No, really. What treatment are you recommending?'

House shrugged, and looked at Wilson, blue eyes boring deep within. 'I don't know. I don't know if I want her to suffer, or if I want her to get well.'

'Wait, so you don't' want to cure her because you want to drag someone in to be miserable with you?'

'No, if I'd wanted her to be miserable, I'd have just asked you to go talk to her. That's more effective than going through all the pain from an infarction.' Another monkey smile to Wilson, who, as usual, gave up talking to him.

-

'There's dead muscle in her left thigh.'

'Oh, dear. Dead muscle! Unbelievable. What do we do?' House asked, feigning huge concern to irritate Cameron. It worked.

'We remove her leg,' Chase said stoutly.

'You want to remove her entire leg just because she has less than half the dead muscle that I did? Oh, right, I forgot. Chase just loves doing surgery. Maybe he just likes sharpening his hacksaw. Do all British love doing that?'

'I'm Australian. I've told you that before.'

'If you're Australian, I'm black.' House caught Foreman's eye. 'Oops, sorry, I mean, African-American.'

'You want to doom her to a lifetime of chronic pain? Damn it, she's fifteen!'

'You want to doom her to a lifetime of having one leg? Damn it, she's fifteen!'

'She could get a prosthetic leg,' Cameron cut in.

'Yea, I think I know that. They're just not as pretty as you are.'

'You think I'm pretty?'

'No. Chase is prettier.'

'Right,' Chase drawled.

'Can we get back to talking about the patient instead of who's the prettiest here?' Foreman asked.

'Aww, Foreman's sad he's not even ranked. Don't worry, I'm prettier than you.' House winked at him. 'Okay, so. Hundred bucks says she'll choose to be like the doctor who's treating her.' He glanced around at each of his employees.

'I'll take it,' Cameron responded. 'I think she'd rather have a prosthetic leg than carry a third leg all around with her.'

'Hey hey hey, that's me you're talking about. Have more respect for those with special needs in society!' House exclaimed as he walked out the door.

'Where're you going?' Chase called.

'To the lion's den,' he replied. Walking to the elevator, walking to the clinic, walking into Cuddy's office. He hated walking sometimes – it hurt so much. Popping another Vicodin into his system, House pushed his boss's office door open.

'Why'd you page me to come to your office?' he asked Cuddy. 'Walking hurts, you know. My office would be a whole lot more convenient.' He looked around and noticed Wilson. 'He made you make me walk all the way here? Mom, he's bullying me!'

'What's the status of your new patient?' Cuddy asked.

'Single. Oh, that's not what you meant. Still in pain, but the clot's removed. She would be single the rest of her life if we don't do something about it, though.'

'What treatment are you going to provide her?'

'I'll have to ask the parents. Can you believe it? They're shepherds!'

'Are you serious?' Wilson asked incredulously.

'Well, their surname is. If Smith came from blacksmiths, Shepherd would probably come from shepherds, right?'

Wilson gave an exasperated sigh to Cuddy.

'Go and talk to the parents, and ask them what they want for their daughter. And, by the way, they aren't shepherds. Mr. Shepherd is the owner of a big corporation, and Mrs. Shepherd is the vice-principal of a school. Meaning, don't screw up. And be nice to someone, for once. This patient's afflicted with the same thing as you were.'

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Reviews always help speed up the process. (Coughcough hinthint!)


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - inspired after reading a lot of synopses about Season 5! Haven't watched it yet though, I wish it'd hurry and come to Singapore ): So yea please read and review and thank you to those who have, and added me to author/ story alert!

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'Good morning, shepherds!' House pushed open Katelyn's room door and proclaimed.

When all he got was a long, bewildered look from the Shepherd family, he said, 'Okay, let's try that again. 'Good – '

'Who are you?' Mrs Shepherd asked.

'Greg House. I'm your kid's doctor. I love sheep, too. Baaa.' He grinned maniacally at the family, and turned back to Katelyn. 'Hello. Your leg hurts like hell, I know, but if you'd not think about it for a while and listen to me, it'd get better a hell of a lot faster.'

'What does she have?' Mr Shepherd interrupted.

'I was just going to get to that – patience is a virtue. Especially when handling those oh-so stupid sheep. You don't have to thank me for the tip, really.' House winked. 'You,' he said, turning back to their daughter, 'have an aneurysm. Your blood vessel in your thigh ballooned out –'

'Wait, so that caused – so much – pain?' Katelyn wheezed.

'Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah, I'm not done yet,' House answered impatiently. 'The blood clotted there, leading to an infarction – '

'That's like … a heart attack, isn't it?' Mrs Shepherd asked.

'Yeah. Heart attack means infarction in an artery near the heart, pulmonary embolism is an infarction in the lungs…your daughter has it in her thigh.'

'So…what are you going to do about it?' Mrs Shepherd asked. 'I mean, you're going to remove it, right?'

'…Yes.' House nodded. 'But what happens after that…that one I don't have to talk about. Actually, you're going to be the ones doing most of the talking. I just sit and listen.'

Mr Shepherd gave a bemused look as his only reaction.

'Your daughter has two options,' House declared. 'First option...amputation, then using a prosthetic leg.'

The entire family cast him a horrified gaze. House looked back at them, then twitched his mouth. 'Yah.'

'But why? Isn't it just a clot?'

'Nah…there's a lot more medicine-y things to it. But you won't understand…' he paused when Mrs Shepherd crossed her arms over her chest. 'Okay. Your daughter's infarction resulted in muscle cell death, and the muscle tissue becomes necrotic, starts spewing out potassium and other _really_ dangerous things out into her system which is bad, of course.' He gave his patronizing, knowing look to the family.

'So… what are the options?' Mr. Shepherd asked.

'Like I said, there's the prosthetic leg option, and there's just removing the dead muscle. So not the whole leg's removed – just the dead muscle.'

'Well, which would you recommend?' Mrs. Shepherd said, frowning.

House flashed a huge smile, and popped a Vicodin. 'Gotta go.'

-

'My tongue has an ulcer.'

'Oh no.'

The patient gave a dark, quizzical look to house. 'Aren't you going to examine it, look at it?'

'It's an ulcer. You've got it diagnosed. Even a monkey could have done that.'

The patient swallowed. 'What are you going to do about it?'

House scribbled a prescription and gave it to the patient. 'This,' he said, as he thrust it into the patient's hand.

'Um, thanks,' the patient mumbled and scurried out the door.

'No thanks,' House muttered back, while massaging his right thigh. He glanced at the clock: 3pm. House downed another Vicodin, grabbed his cane, and left Exam Room One, slamming the door behind him.

Cameron stood at the entrance/ exit of the clinic, waiting for House to turn up. House caught her eye, looked down, and sighed. 'What is it?' he asked Cameron. 'And spare me from any of your moral lectures. I've heard every variation of it.' He stalked off, leaving Cameron standing alone.

'The family can't decide to amputate and get a prosthetic leg, or remove the dead muscle,' Cameron called to him.

House stopped short, then he shrugged. 'That's their problem, not mine.'

'But you would know what to expect! You didn't even tell them!' Cameron protested.

'Again, not my problem. Either way, it sucks.'

'Tell them, advise them about their decision,' Cameron said. 'It's a very important one for them, and they should be getting some professional medical advice.'

House nodded, and without a word, he walked off.

-

Once again, House pushed open the glass door to Katelyn's ward. 'Hello,' he said to them. He stood in silence at the end of the bed, and said, 'You should get a prosthetic leg.'

'Why?' Mrs. Shepherd asked. 'We were leaning towards the other option.'

'Choose the other option only if you want to experience pain for the rest of your life, and by pain, I mean on good days, just tolerable. Choose that option only if you want to be popping painkillers for the rest of your life – anti-rejection meds are way yummier, trust me.'

'How'd you know about the level of pain?' Katelyn asked out of genuine curiosity.

'I chose that option. Or rather, my – girlfriend chose that option. She did it while I was out, in a chemically induced coma, because the amount of pain I was in then was unbearable. You got yours early – you're lucky. And unless you want to end up like your oh-so-cool, glamorous doctor, I'd recommend you get the prosthetic leg.'

'Does it hurt?' Katelyn asked again.

'Did you even hear a word I said?' House answered. 'Get a damn prosthetic leg. There're not pretty, but, well. Definitely better than the other option.' He turned and limped out of the room, closing the glass door, without looking back at Katelyn and her family.

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Yep, thanks for reading, and review please (: Thanks much!


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